Sermon and Worship Resources

Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on

Showing 1126 to 1150 of 4936 results

1126. The Terrible Burden Of Judging Others

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

King Duncan

Years ago there was a Jules Feiffer strip that went something like this: A man is speaking into the telephone and you hear only his side of the conversation. "Yes, mother, I've had a hard day. Gladys has been most difficult ” I know I ought to be more firm, but it is hard. Well, you know how she is. Yes, I remember you warned me. I remember you told me she was a vile creature who would make my life miserable, and you begged me not to marry her. You were perfectly right. You want to talk to her? All right ...

1127. When the Boat Begins to Sink

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

David G. Rogne

In the Gardener Museum in Boston hangs Rembrandt's painting of The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. The artist recreates the scene so powerfully that a viewer can sense the danger the small craft is in and the panic of those who are on board. The small boat is being lifted on the crest of a giant wave; sail and lines are torn loose from the riggings and flailing wildly in the gale. Five disciples are struggling to reef the sail while they hold on desperately to the mast. The rest are in the stern of the boat, ...

1128. Fair Weather Friends

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I'm not a music buff -- in fact, I take too little time to listen to music. But I like the Blues and I am fascinated with country music. One of my favorites in Blues is Mose Allison. He's a Mississippian who went to Ole Miss and is now singing all over the nation -- and I understand is becoming very popular abroad. In one of his songs he says, "I fooled around and got to feeling good, messed around and got humanized. You may think I'm ill advised, but I've gotten humanized." In another he says, "Well, I'm ...

1129. Standing In the Gap: The Work of Intercession

2 Chronicles 7:11-22

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I’m excited about what you’re doing in chapel this year here in Orlando. I’m particularly excited about your theme: Standing in the Gap—and the fact that Steve is basing all of his sermons on the Lord’s Prayer. I want to fit into that pattern—but confess to you that I do so out of the kind of sense that D. T. Niles expressed when he described evangelism as “one beggar telling another beggar where to get bread.” None of us are experts in prayer—the more we pray, the more we realize that we are limited—and ...

1130. Four Cornerstones

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Both Elizabeth and I hail from paper-mill towns. A few years ago the blue collar-redneck-good-old-boy logging town Elizabeth grew up in (Springfield, Oregon) found itself very interested all of a sudden in building sushi bars and trendy, high-tech fitness centers. Why? Sony Corporation seriously considered the town as a new factory headquarters site. Like every other economically struggling small town, the prospect of a large employer coming to town with deep pockets and wide wants encouraged the community ...

1131. Science and the Bible

John 17:17, 1 Timothy 3:16

Sermon

James Merritt

Many of you saw the blockbuster movie Independence Day.1 If you are a little bit older, you may have felt like you had seen the film before, and essentially you had because it was a remake of the 1953 science fiction classic War of the Worlds, but it had one very great difference. While both versions feature aliens invading Earth, in the 1953 movie scientists came up with a weapon that is eventually destroyed. The population, in great panic, is forced to turn to God, and churches are jammed with people ...

1132. When God Speaks You Better Listen

Jonah 1:1-17

Sermon

James Merritt

There is an old saying that "truth is stranger than fiction." Many times that is true. The book of Jonah proves that very point. When a man catches a fish, we accept that as truth. But if a fish catches a man, we would think that is fiction. Jonah is a story of truth that sounds like fiction. One reason I know it is true is because Jesus Christ believed it was true. He said in Matt. 12:40-41: "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days ...

1133. The Great Depression

Psalm 42:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

I’m beginning a six-week series of messages that I am entitling “Dealing with Feelings.” I’m going to begin today with the most dominant destructive debilitating feeling of all. Have you ever awakened in the morning and somehow you just knew it was going to be a bad day? Somebody with a great sense of humor described a few clues to let us know that it’s “going to be a bad day” when: You wake up face down on the pavement. You call Suicide Prevention and they put you on hold. Your birthday cake collapses ...

1134. Why You Should Study the Bible

Psalm 119:105

Sermon

James Merritt

The Bible is the book that is owned by more people in America than any other single book. But what do Bible owners really know about the Bible? 82% say the idea that “God helps those who help themselves” is taken directly from the pages of the Bible. 66% say there is no absolute truth. 63% cannot name the four gospels. 58% cannot name half or more of the Ten Commandments. 58% do not know Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. 52% do not know the book of Jonah is in the Bible. 48% do not know the book of ...

1135. Family Ties and Good-byes

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon

Ron Lavin

If ever we needed to strengthen the institution of family, it's today. Many forces of evil are pulling the family apart. Ethical relativism, which teaches that there are no absolutes, not even God, is increasingly popular. Immorality abounds. Listening and hearing one another seems to be a lost art in many homes. Spouses often seem to be going in opposite directions. Parents and children have a hard time communicating. Many modern homes are little more than large telephone booths where arrangements are ...

1136. Think on these Things

Philippians 4:4-9

Sermon

Donna Schaper

In the letter to the people at Philippi, Paul wanted us to think on things that are beautiful, pure, and excellent. He wanted to teach us asset-based thinking. He wanted to teach us the art of appreciative inquiry. He wanted to limit criticism and the culture of complaint. Paul wanted us to be thankful. Oddly, being thankful does not come naturally to us. We stayed at our best friend's house while taking our daughter on a college visit. We forgot to send a thank-you note. We had a wonderful time — good ...

1137. The Kingdom for Which We Long

Matthew 13:31-35, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:47-52

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

We’ve a story to tell to the nations, That shall set their hearts to the right. A story of truth and mercy, A story of peace and light. For the darkness shall turn to dawning, And dawning to noonday bright. And Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth, A kingdom of love and light. Do you believe that? We come to the second petition in the Lord’s Prayer this morning and it may take the greatest faith and the greatest imagination of all that we are taught to pray. So we pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be ...

1138. Carbon Pure and Perfect

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Jesus is our diamond. Jesus is the carbon based incarnation of the divine transformed by the steady pressure of God’s endless love into the brightest Morning Star Diamond ever created. Jesus is our diamond. Jesus is Carbon Pure and Perfect, the pure and perfect way to the Father, our only eternal security. But there are many ways to look at Jesus, just as there are many ways to look at a diamond. This is what Paul was getting at in our epistle reading for this morning. Paul is urging the Corinthian ...

1139. The Question that Will Change Your Life

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you noticed there are all kinds of questions? There are silly questions and there are great questions. There was a comedian who was riding a subway into work. He had finished reading the morning paper and was saving it to bring to his friends at work. “How do you save a newspaper on the subway?” he asks. You sit on it. A new commuter came on the subway, saw the newspaper that the comedian was sitting on and asked, “Are you reading that paper?” The comedian stood up, turned the page, sat down on the ...

1140. The Living Stone and a Chosen People

1 Peter 2:4-12

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

The Stone—Living and Deadly Peter now turns from exhorting his readers to conduct that befits their life within the believing community to inviting them to consider the nature of that community which Christ has brought into existence. 2:4 The shift to stone from the figure of “milk” (v. 2) is unexpected and seemingly without reason. But for a Jewish reader there is a natural succession of ideas in this passage—not milk: stone, but the Hebraic one of babes: house. A helpful illustration is in Genesis 16:2. ...

1141. Jephthah

Jud 10:6–11:40

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

Jephthah: Ammonite Oppression · Jephthah is not mentioned by name, but this section sets the stage, both generally and specifically, for his entrance on the scene. The author describes Israel’s deteriorating spiritual condition and interaction with God about their circumstances (vv. 6–16); more specifically, he begins to focus attention upon the events that directly led to Jephthah’s rise to leadership (vv. 17–18). The obvious emphasis in this section is upon the general, spanning as it does eleven verses ...

1142. Job's Reply to Eliphaz

Job 6:1–7:21

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Impatience Justified: The first chapter of Job’s response to Eliphaz divides into three parts. Initially (vv. 1–13), he defends the sense of growing impatience with his circumstance that Eliphaz has attacked (4:1–6). Job then turns to a counterattack on the fickleness of some friendship (vv. 14–23). He concludes chapter 6 with a pointed demand to know where sin resides within him that is commensurate with the punishment he bears (vv. 24–30). 6:1–4 Job’s impetuous words are the consequence of unbearable ...

1143. Things a Child Can Teach Us

Mark 9:30-37

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you of a certain age will remember when Roman Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen was one of television’s brightest stars. For those of you who were not even born when Sheen was giving his televised talks, you might be amazed that he twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of Time magazine. He also received thousands of letters from his viewers. One mother wrote that her son was under her feet while she was working in the kitchen. She said to ...

1144. Eyes Set on Jerusalem

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that airlines have crazy rules? And the way they set airfares sometimes defies comprehension. One man tells about wanting to go on vacation. He couldn’t decide whether to go to Salt Lake City or Denver. He wanted to visit Denver, but money was tight so he decided to let the amount of the fare make his decision for him. He called one airline and asked what the fare was to Denver. “Airfare to Denver is $300 per person,” said the reservation agent. Then he asked, “What about Salt Lake ...

1145. No Excuse

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

But the leader of the synagogue, indignant be- cause Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” Luke 13:14 When my brother, Brian’s kids were little, he used to coach football. Well, coaching may be too strong a word. These were nine and ten-year-olds and Brian used to say that what the league called coaching was really more like herding cats. The team practiced twice a week ...

1146. The Gift

Drama

Esther Lense

If the church’s seating arrangement allows, have all the children of the pre-school through the sixth grade sit together on one side of the chancel, with the junior choir on the other side. As the program opens, the children of the pre-school through sixth grade face the congregation and sing Come and Hear the Grand Old Story. As they sing, the "family" characters enter and arrange themselves on the chancel or stage. The school children are seated, and the spotlight focuses on the chancel. A mother and ...

1147. Splashed with the Spirit

Luke 3:21-38, Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

William G. Carter

One Saturday when I was seventeen or eighteen, I had an unusual religious experience. I was serving on my church’s board of deacons, and one of the middle-aged members of the board was driving me around so we could drop in and visit some older members of our church. This was during the late seventies, at a time when our congregation was going through some turmoil. A number of people had been caught up in the charismatic movement that was going through a number of churches. They started a Sunday night ...

1148. The Healing of Jairus' Daughter and the Hemorrhaging Woman

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

James W. Moore

A business executive became depressed. Things were not going well at work, and he was bringing his problems home with him every night. Every evening he would eat his dinner in silence, shutting out his wife and five-year-old daughter. Then he would go into the den and read the paper using the newspaper to wall his family out of his life. After several nights of this, one evening his daughter took her little hand and pushed the newspaper down. She then jumped into her father’s lap, wrapped her arms around ...

1149. Idle Tale Or Eternal Truth?

Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

Over a thousand years ago, a Spanish kingdom was under attack by foreign invaders. For many years, one small fort withstood all assaults, thanks to a remarkable leader called El Cid. When their great leader died, his followers had an idea. They dressed his body in his armor, tied a sword in his hand, and placed his corpse on his horse. With El Cid's body in the lead, the Spanish forces charged. But they were quickly defeated, for this act fooled no one. A desperate trick that collapsed led to despair ...

1150. Day Of Decision

Mark 14:10-26, 43-52

Sermon

King Duncan

Long, long ago, or so I've been told, Two saints, they met on the streets paved with gold. "By the stars in your crown," said the one to the other, "I see that on earth you, too, were a mother. And by the blue tinted halo, I see that you wear, You, too, have known sorrow and deepest despair." "Ah, yes," came the answer, "I once had a son. A sweet little lad, full of laughter and fun." "But, tell of your child!" "Oh, I knew I was blest, The first moment I held Him, close to my breast; And my heart almost ...

Showing results